Show #242

Hello Friends of the Garden!

Beautiful morning on my favorite
stretch of beach for walking!

Paradise is a state of mind, not a place! That message comes to me in little subtle ways! I'm always happy to be at the coast and that's where I am as I write this. Walking on the beach early in the morning, searching for sea glass, and letting the calming sound of the waves as they wash away the clutter from my mind are among the greatest activities I enjoy in my version of paradise. 

A journey that never ended!

John Muir spent a good deal of time alone outdoors communing with nature, which he regarded as his "church". He wrote, "Most people are on the world, not in it, having no conscious sympathy or relationship to anything about them - undiffused, separate, and rigidly alone like marbles of polished stone, touching but separate." I'm willing to wager that at the time, most people did not understand John Muir at all. I'm certain that he was considered to be eccentric and different, out of touch with the real world. From the little I know, I believe he found his paradise!

Homeless encampment in Cambria

In Cambria there is a local newspaper called, "The Cambrian", that comes out once a week, on Thursdays. It's mostly home spun, small town stuff, events and community functions and high school sports (no national sports). I was taken aback when I saw an article on the problem with homelessness in Cambria. My vision of my little Utopian town was tainted with regular, real world problems too? What? How can I be so naive?

Long before Christopher Reeve!

I have always escaped to Cambria like Superman did with his "Fortress of Solitude"! Apparently Lex Luthor has come to Cambria and messed around while Superman was out of town! Truth be told, this mess has always been here! I just opened my eyes to it! Cambria is still my version of paradise, it's just not perfect, it never really was!

In pockets and places all through this nation, Cambria included, there is a great sense of community. Unity is at the root of community and it is that notion that gives us hope for paradise. If we seek a unity that is centered on the well being of our community we can affect a wider community by example. 

2016 "Dumpster Fire"

Where the rubber meets the road is when you watch the news and you are bombarded with the negativity and hopelessness of it all, and you say to yourself, "Hey I'm just one person! How'm I gonna change things?" Poet Jane Hirshfield wrote, "The self in exile remains the self, as a bell unstruck for years is still a bell." 

I suggest any act of kindness or compassion or tolerance or graciousness would be good place to start! We can all do those things privately and publicly. Who or what says good can't spread as easily as bad? Imagine a community with this for a focus! Imagine several examples of this attitude happening as often as the bad news we receive through the media! Paradise might be a lot easier to see in the same way John Muir found it so many places!

Here's Show #242! I'm not with it enough to be cool like DJ Dogfish and come up with "The Year in Review". I just put together whatever's on my mind (scary!). There's still a thread there that made sense when I did it. First timers this week include, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Uncle Lucius, and the Smoke Wagon Blues Band. The second hour is nothing but "Gardenerisms" (coined by Jerry) on old ladies, donuts, coffee, the news and Feeling' Good Again! Oh yeah, there's comedy from Brian Regan and The Firesign Theater in that stuff too. I was in a mood! So, it's not a "New Years" show but it's good!

Thank you Jerry and Robin for support through the years (and it's been years now!). Show 242 and no signs of stopping now! Couldn't have done it without you two!

Thanks to all you kind readers and listeners! Your kind support, encouragement, praise, phone calls, suggestions and conversations have meant so much to me. There are those of you that have expressed how much you enjoy my ramblings and I thank you. It has been a wonderful experience for me to see this side of me that I never knew existed or acknowledged. You've given me a treasure beyond measure! Thanks!

I do need to say this. If you feel you can help the station with your support please consider making even the smallest of contributions!

Peace and Love,

Mike